Reviews
It's refreshing to see a novelist who wants to engage the questions of our time in the tradition of 20th-century greats like John Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis . . . [This] is a book you'll still be thinking about long after you've finished reading it., Praise forThe Corrections"Franzen's most autobiographical novel, his most engrossing (do not be surprised to find yourself trying to read it all in one sitting), and, stylistically, his most lyrical. In its gorgeous, sweeping scope and the sympathy of its tone, it owes more to Tolstoy than to Pynchon, but ultimately the novel offers up pleasures that are utterly Franzenian; a sense of exhilaration permeates The Corrections, which is, in part, the exhilaration of a writer who has broken free of his masters." --Joanna Smith Rakoff,Poets & Writers"Looms as a model for what ambitious storytelling can still say about modern life." --David Kipen,San Francisco Chronicle"Dazzling . . . Electric . . . There's something thrilling, heartening, and inspiring about seeing life revealed so accurately, so transparently--and finally, so forgivingly." --Francine Prose,O, The Oprah Magazine"Let's not mince words or pussyfoot with fancy lit-crit lingo. This is a great book. It needs to be read . . . A huge, ambitious, powerful, funny, imaginative yet realistic novel. This book is a gift." --Karen Heller,The Philadelphia Inquirer"Remarkable and possibly unprecedented: a merciless satirical look at contemporary life that's also fundamentally generous and human." --Laura Miller,Salon"A book which is funny, moving, generous, brutal and intelligent, and which poses the ultimate question, what life is for--and that is as much as anyone could ask." --Blake Morrison,The Guardian"A book as strong asThe Correctionsseems ruled only by its own self-generated aesthetic: it creates the illusion of giving a complete account of a world, and while we're under its enchantment it temporarily eclipses whatever else we may have read. But I guess that is everything we want in a novel--except, when it's rocking along, for it never to be over." --David Gates,The New York Times Book Review, Deeply moving and superbly crafted . . . It's such a full novel, rich in description, broad in its reach and full of wry observations., Praise forFreedomWriting in prose that is at once visceral and lapidary, Mr. Franzen shows us how his characters strive to navigate a world of technological gadgetry and ever-shifting mores, how they struggle to balance the equation between their expectations of life and dull reality, their political ideals and mercenary personal urges. He proves himself as adept at adolescent comedy as he is at grown-up tragedy; as skilled at holding a mirror to the world his people inhabit day by dreary day as he is at limning their messy inner lives . . . Mr. Franzen has written his most deeply felt novel yet—a novel that turns out to be both a compelling biography of a dysfunctional family and an indelible portrait of our times." —Michiko Kakutani,The New York Times[Freedomis] a work of total genius: a reminder both of why everyone got so excited about Franzen in the first place and of the undeniable magic—even today, in our digital end-times—of the old-timey literary novel . . . Few modern novelists rival Franzen in that primal skill of creating life, of tricking us into believing that a text-generated set of neural patterns, a purely abstract mind-event, is in fact a tangible human being that we can love, pity, hate, admire, and possibly even run into someday at the grocery store. His characters are so densely rendered—their mental lives sketched right down to the smallest cognitive micrograins—that they manage to bust through the art-reality threshold: They hit us in the same place that our friends and neighbors and classmates and lovers do. This is what makes Franzen's books such special event." —Sam Anderson,New YorkMagazine , Jonathan Franzen's new novel, Freedom , like his previous one, The Corrections , is a masterpiece of American fiction . . . Freedom is a still richer and deeper work--less glittering on its surface but more confident in its method . . . Like all great novels, Freedom does not just tell an engrossing story. It illuminates, through the steady radiance of its author's profound moral intelligence, the world we thought we knew., A lavishly entertaining account of a family at war with itself, and a brilliant dissection of the dissatisfactions and disappointments of contemporary American life . . . Compelling . . . Freedom , though frequently funny, is ultimately tender: its emotional currency is both the pain and the pleasure that that word implies . . . A rare pleasure, an irresistible invitation to binge-read . . . That it also grapples with a fundamental dilemma of modern middle-class America--namely: Is it really still OK to spend your life asserting your unalienable right to the pursuit of happiness, when the rest of the world is in such a state?--is what makes it something wonderful. If Freedom doesn't qualify as a Great American Novel for our time, then I don't know what would . . . The reason to celebrate him is not that he is doing something new but that he is doing something old, presumed dead--and doing it brilliantly. Freedom bids for a place alongside the great achievements of his predecessors, not his contemporaries; it belongs on the same shelf as John Updike's Rabbit , Tom Wolfe's The Bonfire of the Vanities , Philip Roth's American Pastoral . It is the first Great American Novel of the post-Obama era., A literary genius for our time . . . An extraordinary work . . . This is simply on a different plane from other contemporary fiction . . . A novel of our time . . . Demands comparison rather with Saul Bellow's Herzog. . . a modern classic . . . Freedom is the novel of the year, and the century., Praise forFreedom "Jonathan Franzen's new novel,Freedom, like his previous one,The Corrections, is a masterpiece of American fiction . . .Freedomis a still richer and deeper work-less glittering on its surface but more confident in its method . . . Like all great novels,Freedomdoes not just tell an engrossing story. It illuminates, through the steady radiance of its author's profound moral intelligence, the world we thought we knew."-Sam Tanenhaus,The New York Times Book Review(cover review) "Writing in prose that is at once visceral and lapidary, Mr. Franzen shows us how his characters strive to navigate a world of technological gadgetry and ever-shifting mores, how they struggle to balance the equation between their expectations of life and dull reality, their political ideals and mercenary personal urges. He proves himself as adept at adolescent comedy as he is at grown-up tragedy; as skilled at holding a mirror to the world his people inhabit day by dreary day as he is at limning their messy inner lives . . . Mr. Franzen has written his most deeply felt novel yet-a novel that turns out to be both a compelling biography of a dysfunctional family and an indelible portrait of our times." -Michiko Kakutani,The New York Times "[Freedomis] a work of total genius: a reminder both of why everyone got so excited about Franzen in the first place and of the undeniable magic-even today, in our digital end-times-of the old-timey literary novel . . . Few modern novelists rival Franzen in that primal skill of creating life, of tricking us into believing that a text-generated set of neural patterns, a purely abstract mind-event, is in fact a tangible human being that we can love, pity, hate, admire, and possibly even run into someday at the grocery store. His characters are so densely rendered-their mental lives sketched right down to the smallest cognitive micrograins-that they manage to bust through the art-reality threshold: They hit us in the same place that our friends and neighbors and classmates and lovers do. This is what makes Franzen's books such special event." -Sam Anderson,New YorkMagazine"The Great American Novel." -Esquire"Epic." -Vanity Fair"Exhilarating . . . Gripping . . . Moving . . . On a level withThe Great Gatsby[and]Gone With the Wind." -Craig Seligman, Bloomberg "A page turner that engages the mind." -Dan Cryer,Newsday "Consuming and extraordinarily moving." -David L. Ulin,Los AngelesTimes"It's refreshing to see a novelist who wants to engage the questions of our time in the tradition of 20th-century greats like John Steinbeck and Sinclair Lewis . . . [This] is a book you'll still be thinking about long after you've finished reading it." -Patrick Condon, Associated Press"Deeply moving and superbly crafted . . . It's such a full novel, rich in description, broad in its reach and full of wry observations." -Bob Hoover,PittsburgPost-Gazette"Freedom, his new book, andThe Corrections, its predecessor, are at the same time engrossing sagas and scathing satires, and both books are funny, sad, cranky, revelatory, hugely ambitious, deeply human and, at times, truly disturbing. Together, they provide a striking and quite possibly enduring portrait of America in the years on either sid, [ Freedom is] a work of total genius: a reminder both of why everyone got so excited about Franzen in the first place and of the undeniable magic--even today, in our digital end-times--of the old-timey literary novel . . . Few modern novelists rival Franzen in that primal skill of creating life, of tricking us into believing that a text-generated set of neural patterns, a purely abstract mind-event, is in fact a tangible human being that we can love, pity, hate, admire, and possibly even run into someday at the grocery store. His characters are so densely rendered--their mental lives sketched right down to the smallest cognitive micrograins--that they manage to bust through the art-reality threshold: They hit us in the same place that our friends and neighbors and classmates and lovers do. This is what makes Franzen's books such special event., Freedom , his new book, and The Corrections , its predecessor, are at the same time engrossing sagas and scathing satires, and both books are funny, sad, cranky, revelatory, hugely ambitious, deeply human and, at times, truly disturbing. Together, they provide a striking and quite possibly enduring portrait of America in the years on either side of the turn of the 21st century . . . His writing is so gorgeous . . . Franzen is one of those exceptional writers whose works define an era and a generation, and his books demand to be read., Freedom is a bracingly earnest, ethically serious psychological epic that introduces and exploits its characters' mistakes and foibles, then challenges itself to discover myriad ways to eventually forgive them their trespasses . . . A highly readable triumph of conventional realism . . . Addictive., Writing in prose that is at once visceral and lapidary, Mr. Franzen shows us how his characters strive to navigate a world of technological gadgetry and ever-shifting mores, how they struggle to balance the equation between their expectations of life and dull reality, their political ideals and mercenary personal urges. He proves himself as adept at adolescent comedy as he is at grown-up tragedy; as skilled at holding a mirror to the world his people inhabit day by dreary day as he is at limning their messy inner lives . . . Mr. Franzen has written his most deeply felt novel yet--a novel that turns out to be both a compelling biography of a dysfunctional family and an indelible portrait of our times., Exhilarating . . . Gripping . . . Moving . . . On a level with The Great Gatsby [and] Gone With the Wind .
